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Miniature of Washington by John Ramage, 1789. 



I have carefully examined the miniature portrait in possession of 
Mr. Stabler, both from its artistic and historical aspect, and I am 
of the opinion that it is a portrait of General Washington and was 
painted by John Ramage. 

John Ramage was an Irishman who settled in Boston prior to the 
Revolution and during the war was loyal to the crown. He was lieu- 
tenant of the Royal Irish Volunteers, formed in 1775, for the defense 
of Boston during the siege and the following year he embarked for 
Halifax with the British army. Subsequently he went to New York 
and was commissioned, February 2, 1780, by the British General, 
Patterson, Lieutenant of Company 7, City Militia. He remained after 
the British evacuation of that city and soon became the foremost 
miniature painter of the belles and beaux of the period in New York. 
He was a Mason, a member of St. John's Lodge, No. 1, of New York, 
a pew holder in St. George's Chapel and a member of the New York 
Marine Society, all of which show that he had social as well as pro- 
fessional prominence. He was an accomplished artist, though some- 
what artificial, but his miniatures are painted in good taste and were 
daintily set in gold by his own hand. He became involved in debt 
and fled to Canada in 1794, where he died October 24, 1802, and was 
buried in the Protestant Cemetery, in Montreal, now turned into 
Dufferin Square. 



Washington writes in his Diary, October 3rd, 1789 :— "Sat for Mr. 
Ramage near two hours to-day, who was drawing a miniature of me 
for Mrs. Washington. ' ' 

In "The Century", for April 1889, (p. 864) I wrote :— "All trace of 
this interesting portrait is unfortunately lost." This note was the 
means of bringing to light a miniature of Washington, painted by John 
Ramage, belonging to Mrs. Moses S. Beach, of Peekskill, N. Y., who 
found it in Montreal in 1884, and purchased it from the daughter of 
the man in whose house Ramage had died and to whom the artist had 
given it, as his most valuable possession. This miniature was repro- 
duced in "The Century" for May 1890 (p. 26), and at the time I natur- 
ally supposed it to be the one mentioned by Washington in his Diary, 
and which, for some reason, had not been delivered by the artist. 
This supposition is now overthrown by the production of the minia- 
ture in possession of Mr. Stabler, which he has submitted to me 
for my opinion. 

Mr. Stabler informs me that he knows nothing of the miniature 
as to when painted or by whom, only that it belonged to his mother, 
who received it from Otwayanna Carter, wife of Dr. William Owen, 
of Lynchburg, Va., who died without issue, having adopted Mrs. 
Stabler as a daughter, she being a niece of Dr. Owen. 

Otwayanna Carter was the fifteenth child of Betty Lewis Carter, 
the only daughter of Betty Washington Lewis, only sister of General 
Washington. The descent of Otwayanna Carter is an established 
historical fact, and as her mother was the only daughter of General 
Washington's only sister, it is most probable that Mrs, Washington, 
after the General's death, gave the miniature under consideration, as 
a precious memento, to the daughter of his sister who had died before 
him. ^ 



Gir, 
Author 
(Person) 



I have no hesitation in asserting this miniature to have been painted 
by John Ramage, and also to have been set by him, from my famil- 
iarity with his work in both branches of art. I have as little doubt thai 
the hair in the back is Washington's, as the cipher ''O. TF." would 
indicate. 

The facts and circumstances all point to this being the identical 
miniature mentioned by Washington in his Diary, Oct. 3rd, 1789, as 
being painted by Ramage "for Mrs. Washington"; so that instead 
of the miniature of Washington, by Ramage, being lost, as was sup- 
posed in April 1889, there are two undoubtedly original miniatures 
of Washington, painted from life, by John Ramage, the full-face 
portrait belonging to Mrs. Beach and the three-quarter-to-left portrait 
in possession of Mr. Stabler, which last I have no doubt is the one 
painted "for Mrs. Washington." 

It may not be without interest to add that in my opinion Mr. 
Stabler's miniature of Washington, by Ramage, is the original of the 
portrait engraved in stipple by Houston for Condie's Philadelphia 
Monthly Magazine for May 1798, and set down in Baker's Engraved 
Portraits of Washington (p. 80, No. 130, ) to Savage. 

CHARLES HENRY HART. 
Philadelphia, December 1, 1892. 

(Revised and printed November 1, 1897.) 



W84 








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